Ultimo bra boss Michelle Mone has stripped off for a photo shoot after losing six stone in the space of three years.

"I spent ten years trapped in a body I hated, now I love the new me and I'm happy to show it off," she told the new edition of Hello magazine.

Mone, 38, follows the likes of Kelly Brook, Sarah Harding and Penny Lancaster in posing in Ultimo undies. But it was one of her models, former Spice Girl Mel B, who gave her the confidence to bare all.

"We were doing a campaign shoot in Las Vegas and I was fitting Mel's bra, when she said 'You should do a shoot yourself - show off how great you look'."

Mone used herbal appetite suppressants to shed a colossal six-and-a-half stone, taking her from a size 20 to a size 10.

She said she was dismissive of posing initially, but eventually thought "maybe I could".

Her husband Michael, to whom she has been married for more than 20 years, was against the idea though, she told Hello!.

"I sent him one picture after the shoot and he emailed back to say, 'OK, nice - but you're not releasing them'. Although we've had our disagreements, I've never totally gone against my husband before. Not only does he think it's a bad thing to do professionally, he's a traditional kind of guy and doesn't want other men looking at his wife in underwear."

Mone said that after becoming a mum at 19 she felt she had done everything for other people but this was a chance to do something for herself. "I'm glad I've done it and if I get criticised, so be it. I spent 10 years trapped in a body I hated, now I love the new me and I'm happy to show it off."